Europe

Argenta Spaarbank returned to the euro market on Wednesday to seal a deal that it had pulled in last October. This time around the issuer was able to bring in the funding it wanted, even though the final spread only moved 5bp from initial price thoughts.

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (FSA) has become the first regulator to recommend a series of proposed amendments that would align its covered bond regime with the EU covered bond directive. EU member states have until July 2021 to implement the directive, and while it seems likely that Spain has the most work to do, other countries — such as Italy, France and those in Scandinavia — will also be obliged to consider important revisions.

Ukraine set price guidance on a 10 year euro bond on Wednesday morning and books for the deal had grown to over €4.5bn by lunchtime.

Trades in Prosus, the Amsterdam-listed technology holding company, and UAE payments company Network International flew out of the gates on Tuesday night, and market sources say Europe is finally becoming more of a destination for tech deals.

Investors flocked to a rare offering of restricted tier one (RT1) capital from Phoenix Group Holdings this week, allowing the insurance company to tighten pricing by 37.5bp. The bonds will form part of the financing for the UK firm’s acquisition of ReAssure Group from Swiss Re.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) became the first issuer of non-preferred senior bonds in green format in sterling this week. The German lender took advantage of favourable market conditions to print in line with other recent sterling issuers.

Delivery Hero’s €1.75bn convertible bond, the largest in EMEA for five years, has provoked concern from some investors that the market may be mispricing risk, despite the popularity of the deal.

Investors have been showing a clear preference for subordinated bank bonds in the primary market, with the valuations for more senior asset classes having been squeezed into extraordinarily tight levels in 2020.

Three CEE banks have announced new bond issues this week. Armenia's Ardshinbank has printed a $300m five year bond, Credit Bank of Moscow has initial price guidance out on a dollar five year benchmark and Sovcombank, another Russian bank, has released plans for a roadshow.

Leveraged credit is firing on all cylinders. The best issuers are breaking coupon and margin records and there are bold dividend deals and major league new money LBOs.

DIC Asset, the German commercial real estate company, has raised €110m to finance the acquisition of new properties, following a capital increase supported by Deutsche Immobilien Chancen and RAG Stiftung.

UBS’s investment bank spent around $80m from restructuring related to personnel at the end of last year. The Swiss bank has also said it will look into partnerships with other banks for its investment bank.